Meralco--the new definition of Greed

INQUIRER WRITES IN ITS OPINION PAGE TODAY:

WHAT CAN ONE SAY WHEN A REGULATED public utility, after earning a huge profit, comes around a few days later asking for an increase in its rates? This was precisely what Meralco did on June 18, 2009 when it went to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to seek approval for its “annual revenue requirement and performance incentive scheme” which would have the effect of raising its distribution, supply and metering charges at least once every year from 2012 up to 2015. Three weeks earlier, it had proudly announced it earned P2 billion in profits during the first quarter of this year, or 135 percent more than its profits for the same period last year. Very few firms in the Philippines can boast of such earnings in three months, or even in a year. And it smacks of greed that the petition comes on the heels of two successive increases (granted in May 2009 and May 2010) as well as another increase next year.

ANSWERS:

1. UNBRIDLED GREED. I don't care if Manny V. Pangilinan now heads this public utility nor that the Lopezes retained their chairmanship. The fact simply is---PURE GREED. We now have the highest electricity rates in Asia. I know that MVP wants to always be Number One. But, please, don't make us the No. 1 in terms of the highest electricity rates in the world. That's sickening.

2. KAKAPALAN NG MUKHA. I really don't care if Manny V. Pangilinan and his PLDT cut my Internet services after this but I can't simply allow such things to happen. You already got 2 billion pesos in profit, what else do you want to do? Double it at the expense of the public? That's plain and simple, callousness.

3. SOUL-LESS CAPITALISM AT ITS BEST. I simply don't care that Manny V. Pangilinan and his bosses over at Kuala Lumpur wants my head delivered on a silver plate but this is pure and simple wagging tongue capitalism. The salivation is simply too much to bear. Meralco is salivating for the few pesos we earn every month. What do you call that but the acts of a fiendish capitalist.

And I simply don't care if Manny V. Pangilinan led this "Ako Mismo" campaign nor supported President Benigno Aquino III or whoever he supported during the last elections. The fact simply is, MVP, for me, means Malaysian Valet is a Pilipino. Too much kowtowing with his Malaysian principals, too little care for the Filipino. But, as they say, its all business, nothing personal.

Well, if that's the case, then, let's militate and push these greedy people out of our country fast. It can be done. It will definitely be bloody but hell! Better to have them out here than them frying us with our own body fat....for the next six years!

And I simply don't care if Noynoy Aquino nor the incoming administration have a former Lopez or a former Ayala executive at the helm of the energy and public works department. A just cause simply is worth sacrificing one's life.